(14 Jan 2018, 2:23 pm)Malarkey With some of the Coaster Omnicities going on the 11, I think they should be repainted retaining the Coaster brand rather than being branded Blue Arrow.

(14 Jan 2018, 2:23 pm)Malarkey With some of the Coaster Omnicities going on the 11, I think they should be repainted retaining the Coaster brand rather than being branded Blue Arrow.

(14 Jan 2018, 3:42 pm)citaro5284 So both the 1 and 11 as Coaster?

(14 Jan 2018, 5:36 pm)park5354 Riverside are gaining 710-14, so I suggest the following :-

705 from Peterlee, repainted into GNE Corporate, as Metrocentre mini spare.

635/6 to Riverside, for 33.  When Hexham need them, 4932/33 could be used on 33.

637/638 to Peterlee as replacements for 635/6.
639 to Peterlee as replacement for 705.

633 to Deptford for 516.
634 to Deptford as replacement for 639.

626 stay at Riverside as spare for 13/Asda bus.

4899 should be withdrawn, being replaced by 4954.

(14 Jan 2018, 7:42 pm)Michael It seems odd that 5329 was out and about testing stop announcements for the 8/78, when its a Deptford bus.

(14 Jan 2018, 8:16 pm)S813 FVK Chester-le-Street still have quite a high Streetlite PVR on a Sunday, so it may have been a case that there were none available and being the only single decks with that NSA system based there would give them no choice but to source a bus from another depot. 

Perhaps the available Streetlites (if there were any spare) were overlooked for employee convenience? It would seem a logical thing to do given both vehicle types would show the announcements in exactly the same way.

Either way, it won't have mattered too much, even if it has broken the trend a bit.

(14 Jan 2018, 1:20 pm)V514DFT so 5203 is the first 52** series solar to be withdrawn from service

(14 Jan 2018, 9:19 pm)Rapidsnap Not quite. 5233 declared itself withdrawn when it burst into flames last year.

(14 Jan 2018, 7:42 pm)Michael It seems odd that 5329 was out and about testing stop announcements for the 8/78, when its a Deptford bus.

(14 Jan 2018, 8:16 pm)S813 FVK Chester-le-Street still have quite a high Streetlite PVR on a Sunday, so it may have been a case that there were none available and being the only single decks with that NSA system based there would give them no choice but to source a bus from another depot. 

Perhaps the available Streetlites (if there were any spare) were overlooked for employee convenience? It would seem a logical thing to do given both vehicle types would show the announcements in exactly the same way.

Either way, it won't have mattered too much, even if it has broken the trend a bit.

(14 Jan 2018, 8:35 pm)Malarkey Could be that Dan had other things to do at Deptford this morning and has used 5329 to save on mileage instead of travelling to Chester depot to then double back on himself.

(15 Jan 2018, 7:18 am)Dan Chester-le-Street only have two Coast & Country branded Streetlites spare on a Sunday (due to them being used on other services like the 28, 34 and X22) and had three VOR on Friday (meaning the two branded spares, and the Beamish Streetlite, were all probably going to be in use on Sunday, if they didn't get them back on the road).

During refurbishment, as well as having Next Stop Announcements fitted, the Mercedes Citaros have had new "Wi-Fi enabled" destination controllers fitted, meaning that both the destinations and Next Stop Announcements can be updated remotely. It meant that the test programme and 'proper' programme could be sent to the bus remotely. The Streetlites don't have this special kind of destination controller.

As well as this; when running all variations of the 8/8A, 78/78A, it's probably more efficient to start at the Sunderland end rather than slap bang in the middle of the route (round trip on the 78, 8A Sunderland - The Galleries return, 8 Sunderland to Stanley, 78A Stanley to Chester-le-Street return, then 8 Stanley to Sunderland).

Aside from that, yes, much more convenient for me to work from Deptford, when it's only 5 minutes down the road... 

As S813 FVK suggests, it doesn't matter too much what bus is used. As long as it's a bus with a TFT monitor when the 'proper' bus is a TFT monitor, and conversely LED when it's usually an LED.

(15 Jan 2018, 7:07 pm)Michael Any chance, diversions could be put in place on the stop announcements in the future, with WIFI enabled destination controllers fitted, like for example, with Timber Beach Road closed in Sunderland, the 8 could say:

"This is the 8 to Stanley, there's a diversion in place between via Colima Avenue and the A1231 as Timber Beach Road is closed", "the closest stop would be Queen Alexandrea Bridge North End"

Or when approaches B&Q "This bus isn't stopping on Timber Beach Road due to roadworks, please use the enterprise park shuttle bus" 

These would stop once its back on to normal route and continue with normal announcements.  


Obviously it could be shorter, but that was just an example.

(15 Jan 2018, 7:12 pm)Dan Yes - long-term once everything is up and running as it should be, that's the aim.

The announcements on the X9/X10 are a good example of this - they announce the Felling Bypass roadworks and how Testo's Roundabout was being omitted for the duration of the works. Slightly out of date now with the roadworks being paused, but that may well be the diversionary route again come 28th January (up to now, it's not known whether this will be the case or not).

(15 Jan 2018, 7:34 pm)S813 FVK Would there be much point in creating a TFT program for services that would normally use LED monitors vice versa? Mightn't get use often, but it would increase system usage as well maintaining that part of the specification.

(15 Jan 2018, 7:38 pm)Dan Go North East invested in new systems and destination controllers for all of the Quaylink buses, plus two of the red Versas, late last year. 

(16 Jan 2018, 4:36 pm)ne14ne1 Will it be much longer until Emma's voice is heard across Citylink58s and Quaylinks?

(16 Jan 2018, 6:50 pm)G-CPTN A few weeks ago I rode on a TEN with NSAs, yet as a general rule they seem to be inactive.
Has there been a problem?